


Pay Raise

by fangirlandtheories



Series: Tortuous Friendship [1]
Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Eve really needs a raise, Flynn and Ezekiel friendship building, Gen, Torture, cross post, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2016-06-29
Packaged: 2018-07-19 01:06:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7338379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirlandtheories/pseuds/fangirlandtheories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Flynn and Ezekiel are off on their own on a mission, and literally everything goes wrong, Jake, Cassandra, Jenkins have to help Eve, who immediately races to find them, cursing under breath that she was going to kill them both but not before she was going to have a long talk with Flynn again, and she really deserved a huge raise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Let's Go On An Adventure!

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! You can find me at fangirlandtheories.tumblr.com or at https://www.fanfiction.net/u/6433016/Fangirlandtheories
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy!

The day was winding down into dusk as a dark haired girl ran down the street. Her dress was long and blue and it matched her very well. Tightly clenched in her hand was a small crystal sphere that hung on a silver chain. She heard distinct yelling from behind her but she wasn't worried. She was a Brisbane. She may have stolen the necklace from from the Grimson family but it belonged to her ancestors from many years before. The family had a long fueled hatre for each other, but that's another story for another time. As she ran she felt herself go faster and faster with much less effort. The magic of the pendant was working. She glanced into the hazy darkness and saw just the man she was looking for.

"Lorelei. It's about time. Another ten minutes and I would've come after you myself." The tall dark haired man said. His name was Alex Brisbane, Lorelei's older brother. "Did you get it?"

"Do you doubt me? Of course I got it. Is he here?" She placed the pendant in his hand absentmindedly as she looked around.

"Your beloved Cecil is inside. He was waiting for you as well but he was making me nervous with all of his pacing. So I gave him a crossword in morse coding to help keep him distracted." Alex rolled his eyes at his smiling sister. "I can't say I approve of you two. Not only is he insane but he killed his last girlfriend. I'm not about to let him do the same to you. Even if he's been my best friend since we were young."

"I can't say I care about what you think. He isn't insane by the way, just schizophrenic. Either way, our relationship is none of your business. I can handle myself. You know that. I have him wrapped tightly around my finger." She raised her finger to her brother. It just so happened to be the middle one.

"What a vixen you've become." Alex looked proudly on at his younger sister. "Are you ready to save the world?" They both laughed.

"Of course not. Destroy it, however, absolutely." She smirked mischievously.

"Finally. I've been waiting for you for hours!" A blond man with striking purple eyes appeared at the doorway.

"Cecil don't be dramatic. I was gone for an hour at most." Lorelei laughed.

"A moment's break from your gaze is an eternity's past." He cooed.

"Alright Romeo and Juliet. Can we get this over with. I'm quite ready to destroy the world and begin anew. We will be the kings and the queen of a new dimension but first we must destroy this one.

"Whatever. You know what to say. Do the thing then we can start with the opening of the dimensions." The plan required Alex to put a piece of his soul into the crystal sphere. It was the only thing that could kill him if it was destroyed.

"Parce. Domine. Parce populo tuo. Ne in aeternum irascaris nobis." They all held hands and chanted. Slowly a blue orb formed and moved into the sphere. After this, the group broke hands.

"Lorelei, I want you to wear this and never let it leave your sight. If it does, it will destroy me and thus destroy our plan." Alex handed her the name light blue orb that hung on the silver, web like chain.

"I understand. I will protect it. No matter what the cost." She clasped the necklace around her neck. "Let's go destroy the world."

**Meanwhile…**

"Ugh! I don't know how you can eat that crap. It's so gross. It tastes like yeast." Cassandra frowned in disgust at her best friend.

"How dare you call vegemite crap. If I wasn't busy being a stereotypical Australian right now I'd have to kill you." Ezekiel took a bite from his toast. Not long after, Jake came into the room and spotted the duo at the main desk.

"What are you two doing?" Jake looked at the table, now surrounded in food.

"I apparently wasn't being cultural enough for Jones so he's making me eat Australian food. Although some of it's really good. I really like the Tim Tam cookies." Cassandra gestured to the cookies.

"Oh of course those are the ones you like. Chocolate and caramel. Nothing like anything you have in America. You should try the meat pie." Ezekiel handed her a mini pie.

"I absolutely will not eat anything that contains both the words meat and pie in the same sentence." Cassandra turned up her nose at the delicacy. Jake, not having eaten lunch, looked around the table for something he might like.

"Steak and shrimp. Something I can handle." He took a bite of the steak before glancing up at the pair. They were both red in the face and were trying quite hard not to burst into laughter. "What?!" Ezekiel stopped trying to hold it together and started cracking up. "Jones! What the hell did I just eat?!"

"Oh you ate shrimp straight off the barbie!" Ezekiel accentuated his accent to make it sound stronger. "But that is not steak, mate."

Jake dropped his fork. "Well what is it then?"

"Kangaroo." Ezekiel smirked at the cowboy. Cassandra, who was trying to hold it together, started dying of laughter once again.

"You people actually eat that?!" Jake chugged his water.

"Sometimes. Especially when we want to freak out the tourists." Jones cackled.

"Why are we freaking out tourists?" Eve asked as she entered the room with Flynn.

"I got him to eat kangaroo." Jones laughed.

"You have kangaroo? I love kangaroo!" Flynn raced over to the plate and took a helping.

"Of course you do." Eve rolled her eyes. "So Cassandra, you said that you and Jake have a mission from the clippings book that you're getting ready to go on?"

"Yeah. Why?" Cassandra looked at Jake quickly.

"Well I'm not letting the two of you go alone. You argue too much. I'll come with you." Eve argued back.

"Wait I thought you wanted to come with me. Something about not trusting my judgement." Ezekiel mocked.

"I do but these two need me more. I have an idea… Flynn. You go with Jones. Keep each other in line." Eve told them before walking away.

"You want me to work with him? You know how I feel about him!" Flynn called out to her.

"You'll get over it." She yelled back.

 


	2. Dragged and Drugged

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys find themselves in a sticky spot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! You can find me at fangirlandtheories.tumblr.com or at https://www.fanfiction.net/u/6433016/Fangirlandtheories
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy!

"Have fun? Unlikely." Flynn mumbled to himself as he walked with the thief.

"Do you think I want to work with you anymore than you want to work with me?" Ezekiel asked rhetorically.

"You should want to work with me. I actually know what I'm doing." He answered anyway.

"I know what I'm doing." Ezekiel argued.

"I thought it was your superpower to never know what you're doing." Flynn made air quotes around 'superpower.' Ezekiel made a huff of breath in annoyance before stopping in front of him.

"Okay! New plan. How about we work together just this once, get this damned necklace back to the Annex, and then never work together alone again." Flynn nodded in agreement to this proposition.

"Fine with me. Where is it?" Flynn asked as they walked.

"It belongs to the Grimson family. They apparently won it during a fight with the Brisbane family, their nemesis. Do normal people have nemesis'?" Ezekiel asked.

"I have one." Flynn answered after thinking on it for a moment.

"So I'm just going to say that that means no." Ezekiel rolled his eyes as they approached the mansion.

"How do we want to play this? They're going to wonder how we know about the missing necklace." Flynn hissed to the younger man as they reached the door.

"I've got it. Just let me handle it and go along with what I say." Ezekiel told him. Before Flynn could even object, he knocked on the solid, oak door. An elderly man that looked oddly similar to Mr. Moneybags from Monopoly answered.

"What can I help you fine gentleman with?" He asked, voice rich with condescendance.

"Hello sir, we're sorry to bother you but we're investigating your missing necklace." If he could have, Flynn would have facepalmed right there.

"I'm sorry… we've already spoken with the police, who are you?" He asked them.

" _That's it. We're caught. If he tells him that we're police he'll ask to see some ID, which we don't have."_ Flynn thought. That was exactly what happened, not surprisingly, seeing how the Grimson's were smart. However, what was surprising was how quickly Ezekiel pulled out a badge from his back pocket.

"Ezekiel Jones, MI6. Specialized in retrieval. This is my trainee, Flynn Carsen." Ezekiel said naturally without even batting an eyelash. Flynn couldn't believe his own eyes. An actual M16 badge. With Ezekiel's face on it. An actual ID. Not some crap forgery, no, this was a legit MI6 badge.

"Of course sir, my apologies. You never know who you can trust these days. I do hope you understand. Follow me." The old man, Harold Grimson, led them to a purple bedroom. It was full of the most luxurious things the world knew. Silk sheets, gold jewelry, and of course, finely aged alcohol. On the armoire was a dark cherry wood jewelry box. Naturally, it was completely empty. Flynn looked around the room, taking details of every item. He glanced to the side and saw Ezekiel. He seemed different somehow. He was acting but it wasn't obvious. It was more like reverting into an old personality. He seemed slightly more confident and serious. Like your average secret agent. Flynn had noticed the heavier bags under the young man's eyes but blamed it on the assumed late night internet browsing. Perhaps not. Perhaps the young thief had seen things that kept him awake at night.

"So what exactly happened?" Ezekiel asked, rolling his shoulders back.

"We were having a charity gala where we planned on donating the money raised to a local orphanage. In the middle of it, there was a ruckus and that awful girl, Lorelei Brisbane, came running from this room with the necklace. We tried to chase her, but she was so fast. It was almost magical." Ezekiel nodded, having heard that assumption many times in his short career.

"You know it was her for sure?" He asked.

"Oh yes. I'd recognize that wench anywhere. She is the reason my grandson went awry." He looked into the distance, venom inflicting in his tone.

"What do you mean?" Flynn asked suddenly curious.

"My grandson, Cecil. He used to be such a good boy before he met her. When they met is when it began. He started hearing voices, seeing things, going off the deep end. He had a lovely girlfriend, Silver, whom he murdered for no reason." Flynn's eyes widened but Ezekiel didn't look very shocked, in fact he nodded like it was a normal occurrence.

"So he's dating a Brisbane? Aren't you rivals?" He asked calmly.

"Yes, but you know how young people, like yourself, are. They have a spark of rebellion. They uphold that Romeo and Juliet nonsense. They get angry when we don't approve of them but they never care about what we think or know." Harold grumbled.

"What do you mean?" Ezekiel asked.

"Well, take yourself for example. How old are you?" The older gentleman asked.

"23." Ezekiel said shortly, ignoring Flynn's surprise.

"Very young. Now let me ask, how did your father react to you joining MI6, which is a very dangerous job for such a young man. Not to mention that you're already trained which means you more likely joined it when you were a teenager. I know I wouldn't be too happy, but how did your father react?" Harold asked.

"He didn't." Ezekiel said through ground teeth. "He doesn't know and he certainly doesn't need to. How about we move on?" He made it clear that he wasn't asking, but in fact telling.

"Of course, my apologies sir, I didn't mean to pry. This is really all we have to show you. Allow me to show you the direction she ran in before you go. You might want to ask some of the... _locals_ what they saw." He said locals like it was the most disgusting word he could come up with. He showed them out and they began to walk into the more poor sections of the city.

"So about your dad…" Flynn began.

"Don't even think about it." Ezekiel told him promptly. Flynn backed off immediately.

"Okay… can you at least explain the MI6 thing?" Flynn tried a different approach.

"What is there to explain? I worked for the British Government." He kept giving him the shortest answer possible.

"Why did you never tell your dad? I'm sure he'd be proud." Flynn told him softly, almost finding respect for the young man.

"No he wouldn't! He never is. I used to steal for the queen. It wasn't an honorable job, alright?! Enough with the questions. Why do you care anyways? It's not like you like me." Ezekiel shouted as he stopped to face the man on the sidewalk, turning the questions onto him. Flynn suddenly felt guilty for some reason.

"Ezekiel… it's not that I don't like you… I just don't like how nothing is important to you. You could live your life completely alone and never care. I can't stand that! Just find something or someone to give a damn about. It makes life so much more enjoyable. Not to mention the fact that you're so arrogant. You're not the best at everything and you never will be. I had to learn that young when I tried to get my doctorate in everything. You too, need to learn that and start living by it. You're not invincible to everything." Flynn silenced the angry thief. They continued to walk in an awkward silence until they reached a store near where Harold told them Lorelei ran to.

"Excuse me sir, have you seen this girl?" Flynn asked, holding a picture of Lorelei that Harold gave to them.

"No, but if I do I'll you know." The shopkeeper told them.

"Thank you." Flynn thanked the man. Suddenly a clear, deep voice came from behind.

"I may have seen her." They turned and came face to face with a man with platinum blonde hair and purple eyes.

"You have? Excellent! Can you tell us where-" Flynn smiled excitedly before Ezekiel raised a hand cutting him off.

"You're Cecil Grimson. Lorelei's boyfriend." Cecil smiled manically. Suddenly he felt a set of hands on his shoulder. Behind him stood Lorelei herself. The shopkeeper, who turned out to be Alexander Brisbane, held Flynn in his place.

"Well done, little thief. Did my grandfather tell you about me? He does like to make things up." Cecil pouted.

"You won't get away with whatever you have planned to do with the necklace." Flynn suddenly passed out. Ezekiel's quick moving hands shot into his pocket just as Lorelei injected him with some sort of drug. He pressed the smooth button just as the world turned black and cold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, kudos, comments, and the like are greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for reading! ~FGaT XOXOXOX


	3. Answer the Question!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So begins the interrogation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! You can find me at fangirlandtheories.tumblr.com or at https://www.fanfiction.net/u/6433016/Fangirlandtheories
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy!

Eve had chuckled when she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. She knew that Ezekiel and Flynn didn't get along and that sooner or later one of them would text her to complain about the others. She held her phone into the air for the others to see.

"Who bet 5 hours?" She asked with a smile.  
"Me! Who caved Ezekiel or Flynn?" Cassandra laughed.  
"I don't know, let me check." Eve smiled but it quickly disappeared. "Shit! Ezekiel pressed the panic button!"

"The what?" Jake asked, voice laced with both confusion and concern.

"I gave him a panic button after I found him here a few weeks ago and he was pretty upset. I can't give you any more details than that but the button was for if he ever needed to talk with me or if he had an emergency. He pushed the button. Something is going on." She said quickly in a flurry of panic. Whatever was going on with them, she was going to stop it.

**Meanwhile…**

It came back very slowly. First came the pain, then the light. Flynn cracked his eyes open wearily. His head felt like it was splitting in half and his entire body felt bruised. He looked around and found Ezekiel, lying next to him, completely unconscious. That's when everything came back to him. The needle, Lorelei, the necklace. He needed to get himself and Ezekiel out of there. He turned to the younger man who lie limp on the ground. He patted his cheeks, nothing, he shook him, nothing. He tried everything. Nothing.

"Try this." A voice purred to the right of him. There stood Lorelei in a short, provocative, red dress. She held out a glass of water.

"Thanks." Flynn said dryly before taking the cup and splashing some on Ezekiel's face. That seemed to do the trick. He sat up, sputtering and coughing, as some of the water had gone up his nose.

"What the hell?" He groaned, wishing he hadn't sat up so quickly. His brain felt like mush was trying to claw it's way out of his skull. It made him incredibly nauseous. "What did you drug us with?"

"A little concoction thought up by my darling Cecil. He's very smart. He calls it his migraine juice. It overloads your brain which causes you to pass out then it gives you an intense headache." Lorelei giggled manically. "That should be the least of your concern right now. We have much more planned for you and your friends. You," She hooked Flynn's chin with her long painted nail. "Will be going with my lovely Cecil."

"Already? I thought we were waiting." A deeper, bored sounding voice came from the other side of the room. The source was Alex Brisbane who was typing away on a computer. His eyes never left the screen.

"Obviously not. They're both awake, why wait?" She snapped sounding annoyed. "I'm the hitter here. Let me do my thing. You take care of the plans." She smiled once again before attaching a pair of handcuffs onto Ezekiel and gagging him. "You'll be my little playmate for tonight."

She lead Ezekiel to a dimly lit room with a chair that had restraints attached to it in the center. She strapped him in and removed his gag. "What happens to you is determined by what your friend says." She whispered into his ear. "You better hope he tells us exactly what we want to hear."

"The only thing I hope is that he's smart and doesn't say anything." Ezekiel spat back at her.

"Well we'll have to wait and see. Shall we watch?" She gestured to the large mirror wall on the other side of the room. She hit a special switch and he could suddenly see through it to the other side, where Flynn and Cecil were chatting.

"Your friend over there, he's a nice kid, yes?" Cecil asked.

"I don't know, I don't always get along." Flynn answered.

"Well that's unfortunate for him in this situation. However, I have studied you and your friends. I know that you're a good person and that you wouldn't be able to stand it if someone got hurt because of you." Cecil smiled knowingly. "And that's why you're going to answer my questions today."

"Or what?" Flynn asked.

"Or my girlfriend will get to beat up your delinquent friend." Cecil answered smugly. Flynn mulled over the thought for a moment. Eve would kill him if he let Ezekiel get hurt but he couldn't afford to give up any information about the Library.

"What is your question?" He asked, having to make a decision.

"Tell me everything you know about the Spear of Destiny." Cecil ordered him.

"Not going to happen. Why do you ask? No one has cared about-" Flynn knit his eyebrows together.

"I ask the questions and since you decided not to answer, my girlfriend will hurt your friend." Cecil walked him back into his cell, and threw him inside. Flynn couldn't help but feel slightly guilty, although it's not like Ezekiel couldn't take a hit.

Meanwhile, Lorelei was following through on her promise. Ezekiel was severely battered. She had given him quite a few well placed blows but he was strong.

"Ready to call Uncle?" Lorelei laughed as she slammed his face into a tabletop.

"No, I'm waiting for you to actually start." Ezekiel said through clenched teeth.

"Not satisfied? Am I not doing a good enough job beating you to a pulp?" She kicked him hard in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

"Please, I've had much worse from much better. And much worse, trust me." Ezekiel's voice was breathy and pain filled.

"Really? You dare tell me I'm not good enough? I can do worse, I'm a highly trained martial artist, you trust me Ezekiel Jones, I can do worse. In fact here, let me show you." She took his wrist in her hand gently. "Your hands, they're quite spectacular." Then she twisted as hard as she could, breaking his wrist. Then she picked up a bat from the corner and struck him in his stomach. He felt his ribs crack and break as he fell to the ground with a yelp. "Oh yeah! Now we're having fun! Still not good enough for you? Let me fix that!" She lifted the bat high above her head and brought it down on his knee, hard. That one caused him to scream out in pain. "Don't you ever test me." With that, she dragged him, a bloody mess, back into a cell that was separate from Flynn's. He pulled himself into a sitting position, albeit some difficulty, and took a moment to catch his breath which was not easy with broken ribs. Then he looked over his injuries. His migraine from earlier throbbed on with even more intensity but it was nothing compared to how badly his chest was aching. Then there was his wrist and knee the wrist had hurt the most initially but now, the knee was ahead by a long shot. That certainly made a getaway pretty much impossible. He lifted his heavy eyes to the steel door in front of him. Everything seemed to slow down around him and his last thought before seceding to the darkness was a blind hope that Baird and the others got the panic button text and would be there to rescue them soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, kudos, comments, and the like are greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for reading! ~FGaT XOXOXOX


	4. An Old Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lorelei changes her tactic and a ray of light appears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! You can find me at fangirlandtheories.tumblr.com or at https://www.fanfiction.net/u/6433016/Fangirlandtheories
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy!

"Alright, here's the plan: Cassandra, you track his phone with Jenkins. Jake and I are going to explore the area where they went on the mission. We're going to see if we can figure out where they could have gone." Eve told the group as they huddled around the table in the center of the the Annex. Cassandra nodded and went back to the lab with Jenkins, while Jake followed Eve to the back door.

"Should we honestly be worried? I mean this is Flynn and Jones we're talking about. They were probably just messing around and hit the button by accident." Jake sighed.

"The fact that it's Flynn and Jones worries me even more. I've called them seven times since I got that text. Neither of them has answered. This is different. I think we should talk to Harold Grimson. He was the owner of the stolen necklace that they were investigating." Eve suggested.

They went and talked to the old man who pointed them in the direction that they had gone. They found themselves in an abandoned convenience store.

"This is...weird." Jake stated with furrowed eyebrows as he looked around. Why the hell would a fully stocked store be completely abandoned?"

"Something definitely happened here, but- What is that?" Eve began but got distracted by a black wallet looking item on the ground by the cash register. She picked it up and felt her blood run cold.

"Special Agent Ezekiel Jones. Department: MI6." Jake peered over her shoulder as she read. It was Ezekiel's badge. "We should run this back to Cassandra and Jenkins and see if they found anything. So far this is our best lead." Together they walked on the sidewalk in complete silence. By the time they made it back to the Back Door it had began to drizzle and Jake had light drops of rain in his hair. When they entered the Annex, they were bombarded by Cassandra.

"I was about to call you! We found them. We tracked their phones to an abandoned prison in Egypt."She explained.

"Alright, we have a plan and a place. Librarians, let's roll out." Eve ordered as she loaded bullets into her gun. Nobody messed with her cubs.

**Meanwhile in Egypt…**

"Do you _want_ her to break his fingers? That's what's next! If you tell me where the Spear of Destiny is, it won't have to come to that, but if not it's his fingers on the line." Cecil slammed his hands down onto the metal table. He was getting desperate. Flynn had been bored throughout his entire interrogation, but when he mentioned the breaking of the fingers he became slightly more interested. Ezekiel's hands were the most important thing about him. He would never forgive him if he let anything happen to them.

"Come on, Flynn. Don't tell him anything. It's not worth it." Ezekiel wheezed in his own interrogation room where he was watching Flynn on the TV. He was already beaten pretty well but he knew that if Flynn told them they would destroy the world. He noticed Flynn hesitate on screen before continuing.

"I am not going to tell you anything. Break his fingers. Break his whole damn arm, it's not going to change anything." Flynn told him, feeling guilt wash over him, regretting his words as they left his mouth with a sour taste.

"Well if you insist. Have fun, Lorelei." Cecil turned and left the room, shaking his head in disbelief as he went. Flynn sat, head in his hands, hating his own words, but knowing there was nothing he could do about it at that point. On the plus side, they had plenty of healing potions for minor injuries at the Annex so he might be able to fix Ezekiel without having him go to the hospital.

Ezekiel heard the words as they left Flynn's mouth and felt his stomach drop. When Lorelei broke his wrist it was incredibly painful but his entire arm? That would hurt like a bitch.

"So… your friend seems very loyal." Lorelei smiled as she stood, running her hands over the cold metal of her pole. She gave it a light twirl as she slowly advanced towards him, that same sickening smile never left her face. "Well he did ask for this, so I have to, but don't worry I have some more fun planned for afterward." She brought the pole down on his shoulder causing him to scream out in torture. She laughed slightly and threw the pole down the hallway before grabbing his arm and breaking it. "I prefer to feel the bones snap and crack myself. It's such a satisfying feeling. Now," She grabbed Ezekiel and dragged him into a tiny cell, all while he gripped his now broken arm to his chest in misery. "Onto the fun part I promised you. We're going to do a little experiment over the next few days."

"Pl- Please. Stop this. It's too much!" Ezekiel gasped out in excruciating pain. His mind was in a heavy fog as every part of his arm felt like it was melting into metallic, hot, sludge. His body temperature was rising as the intensity of the pain shot up. He wouldn't be able to take much more. He needed his team. Where were they? Did they even know they were in trouble? What if they couldn't find him in time? All of the questions flew around in his mind as she slammed the door of his tiny cell shut. He laid, arm pulled close his chest for a few minutes before he sat up, very carefully, and observed his surroundings. It was completely bare and he had no space to stretch his body. The cell he was in was approximately three feet by three feet. His back was pressed against the wall and his legs were curled up against the cold, metal door. He let his head fall back against the wall, suddenly feeling the exhaustion of the constant stress on his body. Just as his eyes fluttered shut, the room filled with loud children's music, similar to Sesame Street. Ezekiel sighed. So much for getting some rest.

Over the next **three** days, Ezekiel sat, unmoving, in his cramped cell. The music played constantly, but Lorelei never entered the room again. He hadn't slept or had anything to eat in three days. After the three days had ended, Ezekiel was incredibly weak. He sat up slowly and blinked at the light that was suddenly streaming into his tiny room. Lorelei stood, holding the heavy, metal door open.

"Okay… you're a bit more perseverant than I thought. Honestly, it's beginning to piss me off a bit." She forced him into a standing position. She brought him back to the chair he had been strapped to on many painful occasions. In front of him was that same sickening metal table that was normally empty, but this time it was full of many scary items. Lorelei crossed to the other side of the room where a small stove sat, a teapot on one of the burners. "I'm making a spot of tea. I'd offer you some, but I don't want to. Now, let's begin."

Ezekiel knew something weird was going on. Normally, he'd be strapped to the chair with the tv on so they could see if Flynn would give anything away. This time the tv's screen remained black and cold.

"You'll tell me what I want to know, or I use one of my many new toys. I'm tired of you two acting like you own us by not answering. Clearly I wasn't hurting you enough. My boyfriend and brother have their own way of doing things. I have mine. Where the fuck is the Spear of Destiny?" Lorelei asked through clenched teeth.

"Lady… I have no idea. If anyone would it would be Flynn. He's clearly not going to tell you anything." Ezekiel answered seriously. Lorelei shrugged and turned back to her table. When she turned back around, she had a knife.

"Tell me!" She shouted, causing him to jump.

"I… I don't know." He answered honestly.

"Not good enough." She told him before bringing the knife down on his wrist and slashing it quickly. The second it happened it felt like he hit his funny bone, but only in wrist. It took about 15 seconds for that feeling to go away before he felt the raw stinging pain. Blood dripped freely and quickly. This happened several times. By the time she grew bored with the knife, his wrists looked like a pile of the plastic sticks from the pick-up-sticks game.

"Still don't want to answer me? I'm **so** surprised." She hissed sarcastically, not even waiting for answer. Then, the teapot began to whistle and her face brightened as though she had a new idea. She grabbed his hand, slick with fresh, crimson blood, and dragged him over to the stove. She knocked the teapot off the stove, spilling the dark liquid.

"I thought you wanted that." Ezekiel whispered, looking fearfully at the glowing orange burner.

"Screw the tea." She snapped before grabbing his hand and holding it against the hot burner. He screamed out in agony as the flesh on his hand began to blister. His eyes began to water as she released his hand. It had been held on the burner for about seven seconds but it felt like hours. His knees buckled beneath him causing him to drop to the floor. He curled in on himself, feeling the intense pain of the many days he had spent in that hell hole. Everyday was the same. He woke up, sometimes he never even slept, he watched Flynn dance around the truth over the tv screen, then he was hurt, after that he was sent back to his holding cell where he awaited the next session. Same shit different day. He had been through so much, but the burning of his hand had been the worst. It took him back to a similar time, a time where he went through much deeper pain. Some physical, mostly emotional. The worst, physically wise, was the moment that mirrored this exact moment. When he burned his hand in the Time Loop, something broke inside him. The first time it was because Cassandra was scared. The rest of the times it was because it was something he had to do. It became a means of survival. Grab the pipe or die. When she put his hand on that burner, she sparked that memory, that raw unaltered moment of agony and brought it back to life. He couldn't move, the pain was too unbearable. He couldn't think because mirages of the loop whispered to him, coaxing him away from reality. All he could do was lay there and take it. Lorelei smiled above, believing that maybe, just maybe she had bested him.

Meanwhile, Flynn was just being told that Lorelei would break Ezekiel's bones. He was more convinced each day that a simple healing potion wouldn't help. Flynn's resolve was wearing thin. He didn't want to tell them where the Spear of Destiny was, but he also didn't want to be the cause of any harm coming to Ezekiel. Neither Ezekiel or Flynn knew about the conflict that was happening within their captor's team.

"I don't know what to do… she's out of control!" Alex threw his hands in the air. "She has us locked out and him locked in. It was never meant to go this far."

"Maybe we're not cut out for this. If we leave them here we could still get away." Cecil sat in an office chair, clearly trying to think through the problem.

"That'd never work. We don't even know if our plan will work but she's going to kill him. She need's the Spear. If we leave she'll have the necklace, but Flynn won't tell her anything and she won't be able to use it as an offering. We need to tell Flynn. He'll have to tell us and she'll set him free… right?" Alex paced back and forth.

"I don't know… maybe! It's your psychotic sister!" Cecil stood, chair rolling behind him.

"It's _your_ psychotic girlfriend. You chose to have her in your life, I didn't." Alex stood and faced Cecil. "The next time you speak with Flynn, I'm going to be with you."

As promised, the very next day Flynn was surprised by the extra interrogator. "Aww. Could you not figure out how to get the answers out of me? Was I too tough of a nut to crack? Is that why you brought your friend?" Flynn smiled coyly.

"I came because we _need_ to know where the Spear is." Alex told him.

"I'm sure you do, but I told you-" Flynn began.

"No no no. You don't understand. Your friend is in actual danger. We never meant for this to happen but she might actually kill him. If you tell us, she may release him." Cecil looked him in the eyes as a silence fell over the room.

"You're bluffing." Flynn looked between the two of them with disbelief. He didn't know whether or not he should trust them. He hoped with all his heart that they were bluffing.

"We're not!" Alex slapped his hand down on the table with such ferocity that it actually tipped. "Tell us or he dies!"

Flynn looked at them, suddenly a little scared. Maybe they weren't bluffing. Cecil and Alex sighed realizing that he was finally getting it. Then they noticed the hint of a smile on his face.

"Oh really?" A voice spoke from behind. The two men turned around very slowly to meet a gun pointed directly at their face. There stood the saviors.

"Jake, stay here. Watch them. Cassandra, keep look out. I'm going to go find Ezekiel." Baird ordered. Jake nodded as he turned back to Alex and Cecil who had their hands raised in surrender. Jake smirked at their cowardice before cracking his knuckles in an overdramatic showing of his sheer strength.

"So who was the one to think this was a good plan?" He asked in a sinister tone. "We, as Librarians, don't like to be trapped, but you happened to pick the two that hate it the most. That makes me angry. I sure as hell don't like to be angry, but I have a feeling that **you** reeeeally won't like it." Jake turned his head to glare down at the two terrified men.

"It was more of a collective idea but it was never meant to go this far. Please don't hurt us. Please. We're very sorry. We had nothing to do with what Lorelei did." Alex begged.

"I won't hurt you, only because I don't attack the surrendering man." Jake told them as he pulled Flynn up with a grunt. "However, if you laid a finger on my friend I won't hesitate."

*** Meanwhile ***

Eve looked around the corner, gun drawn. Her heart pounded in her ears as her adrenaline and anticipation rose. She had found the office that Alex had resided for most of the days, but couldn't quite find Ezekiel. She found herself wandering around on high alert until a locked door came into her path. She pressed her ear against the door and heard soft cries of pain. She straightened as anger filled her from her core. Some bitch was hurting one of her own, and she couldn't help them because of a damn locked door. Suddenly a sharp scream pierced through the air which made her heart skip a beat. There is a thing called hysterical strength. It's the phenomenon that occurs when mothers can lift cars off their children with their own sheer strength simply because that maternal instinct tells them that was what they needed to do in that moment. Well, Mama Baird didn't stand for locked door, but apparently locked doors didn't stand for Mama Baird. She stood huffing in the empty doorway as she stared into the heavily swollen eyes of Ezekiel, a frazzled looking woman stood above him, holding a knife. A beat of silence passed before the world seemed to unfreeze. Lorelei screamed and charged at Eve with such speed that it had to be magic. Ezekiel, with new hope, began to struggle against the bonds that held him. As quickly as the battle began, it ended. Baird's gun was knocked from her hands, useless and empty of bullets, and Lorelei took the opportunity to strike with everything she had. Eve crumpled to the ground, knocked out.

"I am sick and tired of you Librarians. Fuck the Spear. I'm going to do this my own way." Lorelei ripped the necklace from her throat. "I'll let you in on what's going to happen here since you play a pivotal role. My brother, boyfriend, and I all work for the original Serpent Brotherhood. Not the silly one Dulaque tried to create. I myself worked directly with Mr. Edward Wilde. My name is not Lorelei, it's Lana. I figured that my brother and boyfriend would get soft and not be able to go through with it. I spoke with a wizard before we came up with this plan. He gave me a simple spell to raise the dead. That's where you come in. This necklace holds a piece of both my brother's soul and Edward's as well. I had to put literal piece of something I loved in this orb, that's Alex. This is vital to bringing him back. But, the premise is a life for a life. You die, Edward lives. Get the picture? Good." She grabbed the knife and held it tightly to his throat, all while chanting something in Latin. She hadn't quite cut his throat, but his neck. It wasn't deep enough to kill him but she did cut him. Wind had picked up in the room and the lights flickered as she stopped chanting, the spell completed.

"You won't get away with this." Ezekiel gasped out.

"Oh and who's going to stop me? Her?" She pointed at Baird with her free hand. "Where's your backup, _huh_? You will never see the light of day again!" Lorelei laughed manically before she heard someone clear their throat from behind.

"Have you ever heard of a force ratio? They're pretty important." Cassandra whispered.

"You… you're the backup?" Lorelei laughed before looking back at Ezekiel. "I would hold out on the hope for a rescue. This is pathetic. Humor me. What is a force ratio?"

"How much force per square inch it takes to inflict an injury. For example, with a metal pole, it take about three pounds of pressure to bash someone's head in." Cassandra suddenly swung with the same metal pole used to break Ezekiel's limbs. Lorelei, having been caught off guard dropped the knife and the necklace to try to defend herself. She was unfortunately too slow. Cassandra was almost in a trance as she kept swinging, unable to get the image of the broken, half dead Ezekiel from her head. Lorelei crumbled as the pole hit her in the skull. One. Two. Three times. Many more after. Unable to stop.

"Cassandra. Cassandra stop. Cassandra!" Ezekiel rasped out. "Cassandra. She's dead. Please. Stop." Cassandra dropped the pole with shaky hands before falling to her knees. She had killed Lorelei.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, kudos, comments, and the like are greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for reading! ~FGaT XOXOXOX


	5. From the Guilt Comes a Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this is it! The last chapter! Flynn, feeling quite guilty, comes up with a plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! You can find me at fangirlandtheories.tumblr.com or at https://www.fanfiction.net/u/6433016/Fangirlandtheories
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy!

Jake didn't know what to think when he rushed into the small metal room. He couldn't decide whether to focus on the half-dead Ezekiel Jones, the unconscious Colonel Baird, or on Cassandra who had sunk to the floor, sobbing, covered in blood. Rather than focusing on his team, his eyes were stuck on the dead woman lying a few feet from Cassandra. As Flynn slowly came in behind him, he rushed to his fallen girlfriend before looking over at the others. His eyes held on Ezekiel for an extra second before he flicked them away, unable to make full eye contact.

"What the hell happened here?" Jake whispered as he helped Cassandra stand, pulling her into a tight hug.

"Lorelei was actually some chick named Lana who worked with Edward Wilde. They were trying to bring him back. A life for a life." Ezekiel answered weakly. "Then Eve came in, tried to fight her, got knocked out. She tried to kill me but the Cassandra came out of nowhere and well…" He trailed off, knowing they could fill the pieces in themselves.

"Wait Lana!? How the hell…?" Flynn slowly walked over to the body, inspecting it. He huffed angrily. "A cloaking spell to hide her identity. Smart. I wouldn't have even known it was her. Me and Lana go way back to when I first became the Librarian, 10 years ago."

"We should get out of here." Eve groaned as she clutched her head, finally coming to. She stood slowly, leaning heavily against the wall.

"I'll call Jenkins, if you want to help Ezekiel out of that chair. He's been strapped in long enough." Jake directed his question at Flynn who looked uneasy.

"How about _I_ call Jenkins and you help him up." He had walked away before Jake had time to process.

"Um… okay…" Jake looked down at Cassandra who was still clutching onto him tightly. "Cassandra, I have to help Ezekiel. Eve, do you mind taking her?" Jake asked the woman.

"It's no problem." Colonel Baird walked over to Cassandra and got her to sit down. She was whispering something in her ear and it seemed to be working, as Cassandra's sobbing had lessened.

"Ready man?" Jake unlocked Ezekiel's handcuffs and shackles and unclipped him from the chair. He went to pull him into a standing position but Ezekiel cried out in pain before crumbling to the ground. "Apparently not."

"Holy fuck." Ezekiel breathed heavily as the world blurred. His whole body permeated with pain. He clenched his eyes shut and reopened them a few times, in hopes of relieving some dizziness, to no avail. It was as if all of the injuries he had were screaming out at once. He couldn't move, couldn't speak, could barely breathe. The pain took over his entire body, leaving him a pathetic heap on the floor. His breaths were ragged through his broken ribs and tears leaked from his eyes as the pain intensified.

"Alright, new plan. This might hurt a lot but we have to get you out of here." Jake scooped him up and Ezekiel found his voice as he called out in pain. The world went hazy as he heard the dimming voices of the others calling out words of comfort to him "You're almost there." "Just hang on." With those words, he drifted away into a painless slumber.

**A long while later…**

When Ezekiel awoke he didn't quite know where he was. There was beeping and a TV playing some 90's game show in the background. As he moved, very slowly, in his bed, he felt a small prick of pain in his arm. He slowly opened his eyelids to the harsh bright light and saw an IV in his arm. There were two places he could be. The sickroom in the Annex, or the hospital. His hopes were on the Annex but there was something about the sterile smell in the air that told him that he was in the hospital. As for the game show on the TV, it was The Price is Right, and the person watching it was none other than Flynn Carson.

"Flynn?" Ezekiel's voice came out much weaker than he expected. "Where is everyone?"

"Hey, you're awake." Flynn looked over at him with a tight smile. "Uhm, they're back at the Annex getting some sleep. We've each been taking a shift of staying here, waiting for you to wake up."

"How long have I…" Ezekiel didn't care to finish the sentence. It hurt to speak. They must have put a tube down his throat.

"A week." Flynn looked down guiltily.

"What…?" Ezekiel asked, suddenly suspicious.

"Ezekiel… this," He said gesturing to the hospital bed. "This is all my fault. I should've known that when I let Lana go 10 years ago that she would come back. Not only that, but I willingly let them hurt you. I told them to. What kind of monster does that to his own teammate?"

"Flynn, look, none of this is your fault. How were you to know that she would come back, or if they were bluffing. You did the smart thing. You saved the they had gotten a hold of the Spear, all of us would be screwed. Anyways, I'm happy it was me and nobody else that had to deal with it. That's my job." Ezekiel gave a small, yet genuine smile. Flynn felt sick to his stomach. Ezekiel, in all innocence, believed that his position on the team was the guy who sacrificed himself for the others.

"Ezekiel, you don't have to be a martyr to be on this team." Flynn tried to reassure him.

"It's kind of hard to feel like you have a place on a team of super geniuses when you aren't one." Ezekiel's face fell a little. So did Flynn's heart. He had been harping on him for a very long time about his place on the team and how he didn't deserve to be there, all the while adding to his insecurity.

"You're here, on this team, for a reason. Not just to be a thief but-" Flynn began but was interrupted.

"Yeah, I know. To take the beating for you guys too." Ezekiel told him with a smile. He enjoyed flustering Flynn.

"N-No. You have a place in this group for more reasons then you know. 1. Is for us. We needed someone unconventional to turn our worlds upside down with newer, more clever and cunning ideas. 2. For you. You needed a place. A family. The Library gave that to you." Flynn told him, getting excited. His hands flew as he spoke and his voice got louder.

"Sir. You're disturbing the other patients and preventing Mr. Jones from the rest he needs. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave." A bruteish nurse enter the room.

"No, he's alright. I just woke up." Ezekiel stifled a yawn that didn't help his case.

"Mr. Jones, you're very lucky to even be alive. Not only that, you're not in a full body cast like I suggested because you had some form of injury everywhere on your body. You're obviously exhausted, as your body is using all of it's energy to heal." The nurse sneered at him. Ezekiel opened his mouth to reply again but was cut off.

"It's alright. I was just leaving." Flynn nodded to the nurse. She gave him a fake smile before leaving. "Well she's pleasant. But she's right, you look exhausted. Get some rest. We'll be here when you wake up." Ezekiel wanted to protest but his eyes were heavy and the bed was so soft.

Flynn went back to the Annex where he found that the others were awake. "Guys I have an idea." He told them as they gathered around. "He woke up today but he seems to think that the only reason he's on the team is to be a thief and to sacrifice himself for us. I think this calls for an Ezekiel love session. He needs to know all of the best things he's done." The others nodded in agreement.

"Let's do this." Eve nodded to the group with a smile on her face before they all rushed around to gather some stuff.

The second time Ezekiel woke up, it was more painful. The painkillers were wearing off and the ache of his body was growing stronger. None of that mattered, however, when he saw the smiling faces of Cassandra, Jake, Eve, and Flynn. They were all holding different things that had no place going together.

"So Flynn said that you thought your place on this team was to sacrifice yourself. We're going to prove this theory wrong." Jake smirked as he helped the younger man sit up. Suddenly the nurse came back to the door.

"You're not supposed to have this many people in here!" She huffed angrily. Eve turned to her with the deepest glare the woman had ever seen.

"Listen here, _Delores_ , because I'm only going to say it once. We're all going to stay in this room, understand?" Eve asked as she pulled out her NATO badge, willing Delores to test her.

"Fine. Just don't be too rowdy." The woman walked away with a scowl.

"Alright let's start. Who wants to go first?" Cassandra looked around.

"Start what?" Ezekiel asked.

"Proving you wrong. Cassandra go ahead." Jake told her from his position in the chair next to the bed.

"Okay. I have a few things to show you." In her hands were a pair of glasses, some iced sugar cookies, and a trophy. "The glasses are from when you lead me through the Labyrinth. The sugar cookies, when you pretended to be Santa just to distract Lamia. The trophy is the trophy you gave to me. You do some amazing things Ezekiel." Cassandra told him with a smile.

"Well thank you but-" Ezekiel started.

"Nope." Jake tutted. "We're not done yet." From his hands he pulled out the storybook, the head of Stumpy, and a miner's hat. "You saved that little girl's life. Not only that, you saved the town. As for Stumpy, well, you made his life worth living. You gave him a friend when he never had one before. The best thing you've ever done for me was pretend to be a doctor in front of my father to stop him from insulting me. There was a kindness there that I had never seen in you before."

"That is, until the game. Ezekiel, we have nothing here to portray that besides our lives, which we owe to you. You gave yourself up for us inside that video game." Eve smiled. "Now, you seem to think that's your job. It isn't. If it's anyone's, it's mine, so stop trying to steal my gig, kid." This elicited a smile from Ezekiel who was silenced by their kind words.

"Ezekiel, you've done more than you can imagine for this team, and we hope that we can return the favor. Right now, however, you've got to rest up. We need our thief back as soon as possible." Flynn threw a wink his way before the back door opened behind him. "Come on crew, let's let him sleep." Ezekiel drifted off with the sounds of their praise in his ears and a smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, kudos, comments, and the like are greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for reading! ~FGaT XOXOXOX

**Author's Note:**

> As always, kudos, comments, and the like are greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for reading! ~FGaT XOXOXOX


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